PM’s state visit takes India-US relations to the next
It was nearly a decade and a half ago, when US President Barrack Obama, chose to have PM Manmohan Singh as the first state visit of his administration, thereby underlining a significant upgrade to the India-US bilateral relationship. Many officials at that time had described the invite to India, not as an accident but as a carefully thought gesture, to bring a friend closer to Asia. 2009 wasn’t the time when the US-China relationship, or the India-China bilateral was unstable, yet, both countries realised the future threat and started deepening their bonds.
This week the spectacle that unravelled before citizens of both countries with PM Modi’s state visit to the US, the address by the Indian PM to the joint Congress, the curated business meetings with top CEOs and the rock star level diaspora events, are a couple of decades of relationship reset, now, visible. It may be worth remembering that just two and half decades back India was under US sanctions and there was almost a diplomatic freeze in relations, haunted by memories from the cold war. There was resistance (perhaps there is still some resonance of the initial fears) nursed by some old-world think tanks, academicians and strategists on both sides.
However, the relationship, one which is transformational and crafted for the 21st century has been expanded to include a vast spectrum of shared interests, which are difficult to be ignored in the next couple of decades. The political economy of both democracies has also accepted the new reality and there is bipartisan support for enhanced closer India-US partnership.
If one of the key opposition leaders, Rahul Gandhi was in the US a fortnight before the PM’s visit, engaging with think tanks, government officials and the diaspora on the state of Indian democracy, the US congressional leaders meanwhile, led by the Speaker of the House of Representatives Mr Kevin McCarthy and Senate Majority leader Mr Charles Schumer, extended a rare invite for an Indian PM to address the joint sitting of congress, for the second time. The political message was loud, both countries acknowledge the relevance of each other in the new world order.
This state visit underscored the shift in India-US bilateral from primarily being focussed on a strategic defence partnership to taking giant steps towards a meaningful technology partnership. As PM Modi in his remarks before flying to the US noted “India-US ties are multifaceted, with deepening engagements across sectors. The USA is India’s largest trade partner in goods and services. We collaborate closely in science & technology, education, health, defence and security fields. The initiative on Critical & Emerging Technologies has added new dimensions and widened collaboration to defence industrial cooperation, space, telecom, quantum, Artificial Intelligence and biotech sectors.”
One of the most significant fillips to this new age partnership has been the creation of iCET ( initiative on critical and emerging technologies), a platform, supervised by the Indian Prime minister and US President’s office directly. US National security advisor, said “ ICET is foundational, fundamental, critical because we believe that the future of our economies, societies security sectors will be determined by the extent to which we can effectively harness emerging technologies on behalf of our people and on behalf of our national interests.” The markers have been set, the sprinters are in position, and perhaps the gunshot has been fired for the long haul US India cross country run for decades to come.
(The writer is a policy analyst. The views expressed are personal)
